Road Warrior: Little hope for fixing 'Exit Hell'

Drivers can't turn right when they take the Garden State Parkway exit at Glen Road in Woodcliff Lake.

If driving too often makes you feel like a lab rat caught in a maze with no exits, you'd be wise to avoid Exit 171 on the northbound side of the Garden State Parkway.

Ridgewood reader Neel Pujara calls this frustrating Woodcliff Lake puzzle "Exit Hell" because of the "No right turn" sign located where the ramp meets Glen Road.

Although he wanted to go right, Neel legally turned left when he first encountered this sign while scouting for a garage sale. He figured he would soon find a U-turn, but "a myriad of 'No U-turn' signs prevented that," he said.

So, Neel experimented.

First, he looped around toward the south, a route that eventually returned him east on Glen Road 1.6 miles later. Then he drove north and looped back, but that trip took "a mind-boggling 3.9 miles," he said.

Of course, Neel could have taken a chance on an illegal right, but — besides risking a fine and points — that would have complicated his return trip. "There's no ramp there to easily take you back to the southbound parkway when approaching from the east," he said.

He tried to guess how much all the lost time, lost gas and unnecessary pollution these signs create. "How do people manage to live there and go through this every day?" he asked. "Are there any plans to improve conditions?"

The short answer is no.

Exit 171 has been debated since it was proposed in 1980. Woodcliff Lake initially didn't want the additional traffic that a parkway exit would surely attract from other Pascack Valley towns. The borough even filed a lawsuit to stop it, but local officials eventually gave in to demands made by nearby Montvale and Park Ridge.

To lessen traffic volume, however, the borough insisted on posting the "No right turn" sign on Glen Road. And before the exit was opened on July 25, 1985, Woodcliff Lake also got the Bergen County freeholders to approve more than $1 million in improvements, including traffic lights and widening of Glen and Chestnut Ridge roads west of the ramp.

But the old controversy reemerged as traffic counts grew over the years. For example, officials in Washington Township just south of Woodcliff Lake blamed Exit 171 for much of their clogged roadways, especially along Washington Avenue and Pascack Road.

"People get off at our exit – 168 — then use our local streets to avoid the 'No right turn' sign on Glen Road," said Public Safety Director William Cicchetti, the former police chief.

Township officials asked the Woodcliff Lake Council to remove the sign or at least suspend the right-turn ban part of the time — either during rush hours or in off-peak travel time. For a while, it appeared that the council might let its voters settle the issue, particularly after officials of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which runs the parkway, voiced support.

But in August 2011, the council decided against a referendum.

"If we removed the right-turn ban, we might have double the 20,000 cars now going through there," said Woodcliff Lake Police Chief Anthony Jannicelli.

The additional cars would clog already-crowded Glen Road as eastbound drivers turned left against slow-moving, westbound traffic to enter residential blocks along Glen, the chief added. Limiting the hours of the right-turn ban would require additional enforcement that would overtax his 18-member police force, he said.

The township has refused to do that, mainly because of Washington Avenue's steep hill. A lengthy traffic queue stopped for a light would invite rear-end collisions as cars reached the top of the hill without seeing the queue, Cicchetti said. "We've had enough accidents there already," he added.

What's the solution?

Both sides agree Exit 171 should be expanded to include parkway entrances as well as exits that allow traffic to enter Glen Road on both its eastbound and westbound lanes.

But that's wishful thinking. The Turnpike Authority made nearly $1 million in improvements to Exit 168 in 2011, but it has no plans to alter 171.